Sunday, August 16, 2015

Two-Thirds of Ukrainians Want to Join NATO and Be Inside ‘Borders of Civilized World,’ Portnikov Says

Paul Goble

Staunton,
August 16 – Sixty-four percent of Ukrainians say they want to join the Western
alliance, according to a new poll conducted by the Kucheriv Democratic
Initiative and the Razumkov Center. And they want to, Vitaly Portnikov says,
because its borders are today the borders of the civilized world that no
aggressor would even think about attacking.

In a
comment for Radio Liberty today, the Ukrainian analyst says for many years, it
seemed unthinkable that so many Ukrainians would make that choice. Sixty-four
percent – almost two out of three – was a figure that “seemed unachievable” but
now it is destined to rise even further (radiosvoboda.org/content/article/27190332.html).

“The
Russian invasion of Ukraine has destroyed all Soviet propaganda myths which for
many years remained the chief discourse in relation to the majority of citizens
of Ukraine about their own security,” Portnikov says.

That is
because, contrary to what Moscow had insisted, “It was not NATO that attacked
Ukraine but ‘fraternal’ Russia. And it was not NATO that tried to ‘draw in’
Ukraine into its military operations but Ukrainians themselves who wanted that
NATO countries get involved in a war which Russia is conducting.”

“NATO has
clearly shown,” Portnikov continues, “that it can guarantee the security of
those who join it: an aggressor will not even think about violating the borders
of the civilized world. But unfortunately, Ukrainians are still outside these
borders.” Had they been within them in the past, the present would be very
different.

“Russian
soldiers would have been sitting at home, and Crimea and the Donbas would have
remained Ukrainian. And now over Sevastopol would fly not the flags of the
traitors of Russia’s Black Sea fleet but the flags of the naval forces of
Ukraine and of course, the flags of our allies from NATO countries who would
have helped us defend the borders of the civilized world from Russian
authoritarianism.”

It is
thus a positive development that 64 percent of Ukrainians want to join NATO; it
will be even more positive when, as is now inevitable, that figure rises to 90
percent, Portnikov continues. But of course, that alone won’t be enough for
Ukraine to be in a position to join the Western alliance.

Ukrainians,
the Ukrainian commentator argues, must “now resolve the problems of their own
countries, secure its defensive capability and territorial integrity, and
finally break all ties with Russia until the collapse of the criminal regime of
that country and the recovery of its society.

“But the
fact that Ukrainians are beginning to think realistically is already half a
success. The second half will be the willingness of NATO to take Ukraine into
its ranks.That is what [Ukrainians and
their supporters] must struggle for.”